The conflict in Korea is often called “The Forgotten War.” It ended with neither a clear-cut victory, like World II, nor a painfully obvious defeat, like Vietnam. It ground, instead, to an uneasy stalemate that left 35,000 Americans dead. Well, we have a new forgotten war. This one is in Afghanistan, where Americans continue to fight over a decade after we first invaded. They continue to die, too: the death toll this year is already over 300. But the war in Afghanistan hardly registers with the public: it is old news.
[Read More]

This Monday marked the second anniversary of the self-immolation of the young Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, whose act of defiance catalyzed the Tunisian revolution and the end of nearly 55 years of authoritarian rule over the country. Although he was not the first person to take his own life in recent years to protest against the Tunisian government or other regimes in the Arab world, the death of Bouazizi has come to represent the beginning of the political and social transformations impacting the Middle East in various forms from Tunisia to Libya, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Jordan and Bahrain.
[Read More]

This week the global health community is mourning the violent loss of nine workers who were killed while administering vaccines in Pakistan as part of a national polio vaccination program. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global polio eradication initiative, Pakistan is one of three polio-endemic countries worldwide; the other two are Afghanistan and […]
[Read More]

December 21, 2012. This quickly-approaching date in our modern Gregorian calendar is notorious for allegedly having been ordained as a global doomsday in an ancient calendar created by the Maya. But after repeatedly being discredited by scientists at NASA and prominent Mayanists among others, the popular end-of-days prediction has lost some of its cache (not before being milked for its commercial value by Hollywood, of course).
[Read More]

I suspect that in 50 years we will look back upon the current controversy over gay marriage with chagrin and shame: chagrin because same-sex unions will have become, by then, utterly matter-of-fact; shame because discrimination against homosexual couples will be generally recognized as an egregious breach of equality under law and simple human decency.
[Read More]

We are now approaching the tenth anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, which occurred on March 19, 2003. There has been, to date, little press coverage of the occasion. This is hardly surprising. The recently concluded presidential campaign consumed the U.S. media for the better part of six months. And talks in Washington over the “fiscal cliff” — a combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases that many claim will plunge our economy back into recession — has taken center stage. Abroad, other events — the intensifying civil war in Syria, the outbreak of violence in Gaza, the ongoing efforts by the United States and its allies to halt Iran’s nuclear program, the uproar (at least here and in Israel) over Palestinian recognition at the United Nations — have dominated the news … The late Gore Vidal used to call our country “The United States of Amnesia,” because of our tendency to forget the past when it is too unpleasant or inconvenient. But we should not let the anniversary of the Iraq War pass without serious soul-searching. The reasons are three-fold.
[Read More]

A recent study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows an increasing number of Americans are abusing legal or prescription drugs — especially teenagers. What lessons can prescription drug abuse teach us about the way we deal with illegal drugs in the United States? I can think of several.
[Read More]

Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem. Some studies suggest that it has reached epidemic proportions, with prescription drugs being the second-most abused category of drugs after marijuana. Some people experiment with prescription drugs because they think they will help them have more fun, lose weight, fit in, or study better.
[Read More]

Blog Search

Keyword search across all the entries in this blog.

Search

Top Videos

The mission of the nonpartisan James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy is to help bridge the gap between theory and practice of public
policy by drawing together experts from academic, government, media, business
and nongovernmental organizations. By involving policymakers, scholars
and students, the institute seeks to improve the debate on selected public
policy issues and to make a difference in the formulation, implementation and
evaluation of public policy. The institute’s more than 20 programs, which include research, speaking series, events and special projects, have helped attract a host of prominent leaders who provide their views and insights on key issues.